AT HOME WITH CHARLIE: New Blue Jays manager brings passion, personality to rebuilding team

TUCSON, Ariz. — You are about to know him as an energetic man with a quick smile and even quicker wit, a baseball lifer committed to mining the best out of those who surround him.

But to get to the heart of Charlie Montoyo, the 13th manager in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays, it is perhaps best to start in the Arizona desert, specifically the family’s home in the shadow of the Santa Catalina mountains.

In the room above the garage here in the upscale Tucson suburb is Montoyo’s man cave, a retreat where the 53-year-old enjoys portions of his off-season by getting lost in his love for salsa music, the roots of which date to his childhood in Puerto Rico.

Next down the hall is the room of youngest son Alex, an ebullient 11-year-old whose spirit is embraced by anyone lucky enough to get to know him. On one of the walls in Alex’s lair there is already a Blue Jays pennant. The youngest Montoyo is a young baseball nerd in training, already well-studied in the players on the roster his father will help resuscitate after two terrible seasons.

New Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo poses with his youngest son Alex at their home in Tucson, Ariz.Rob Longley /
Toronto Sun

In the backyard there is a full-sized lacrosse net where Montoyo spends time with his older son, 16-year-old Tyson, a goaltender in that other summer sport that has become his love.

And all around the Southwestern-style home are the touches of Montoyo’s wife Samantha, who has been with him through their personal and professional journey. The adventure, heavy on baseball and travel, began when they met while Montoyo was managing the single-A Charleston RiverDogs back in 2000. Through some challenging times, the Montoyos persevered together on his rise to this, the pinnacle of his professional career.

He is a family man, an occasional jokester and, most importantly, a manager intent on treating people and players the right way as a means of boosting their production and skill.

Montoyo’s baseball roadmap is well-worn and varied, a mostly successful path through a celebrated minor-league managing career that saw him earn an induction to the International League Hall of Fame. For the past five years he was an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Rays working under innovative manager Kevin Cash, further honing his qualifications for this pending assignment as fired manager John Gibbons’ replacement.

At each stop, Montoyo believes he has learned more about both himself and the intricacies of America’s pastime.

When he wins his first regular-season game with the Jays this spring, Montoyo will have accomplished a rare feat — managing a team to a victory at every meaningful level of North American professional baseball: Rookie ball, high-A, low-A, double-A, triple-A and the bigs.

“I’ve got quite the random-ass collection of baseball T-shirts,” Samantha says with a laugh to illustrate the stops along the way.

Content to keep his head down and work hard while eschewing self-promotion, there was a chance this big-league gig was never going to happen. But the deeper Blue Jays management delved into his personality and views on the modern game, the more attracted they became to a Rays assistant who had previously been interviewed by the Cincinnati Reds.

Montoyo left his beloved Puerto Rico as an 18-year-old with dreams of making it in America. It may seem like a lifetime ago, but those roots have remained strong. He still talks to his parents daily and was feted in his home town of Florida, Puerto Rico, weeks after the Jays hiring, an honour that touched him deeply.

“It was emotional when I told my mom and dad (about the Jays job),” says Montoyo, whose major-league career consisted of just five at-bats with the Montreal Expos in 1993.

“My dad is getting older and forgetting stuff and he’d be the one any time someone was interviewed or got a (major-league manager’s gig), he’d be asking me why that wasn’t me. It was almost perfect timing that this has happened now because he knows what’s going on still.”

By way of disposition, Jays fans may come to view Montoyo as the Latino version of the man he succeeds, the personable Texan Gibbons. He’s sharp, affable and places supreme emphasis on developing strong personal relationships with players, management and all who cross his path.

“I have never heard anyone say anything bad about my husband,” Samantha says. “Nobody has said we don’t like him, we don’t want to play for him, he’s horrible at his job, absolutely never.

“Charlie is very even. Charlie is very kind. Charlie has a million friends who he checks in with constantly. Everybody loves him — it’s amazing.”

*****

Alex Montoyo bounds through the door into the home on the edge of the desert, a touch shy and perhaps curious of the visitor from what will be his new home town.

As with any happy kid that age, however, there seems to be barely a care in the world — minus, perhaps, the math homework Samantha quickly reminds him to get started on.

But this is winter and Charlie is in the house, a luxury all four Montoyos savour. When Jays pitchers and catchers get started in Florida next week, the family won’t have extended time together until the end of May, when the Arizona school year ends and Sam and the boys ship north for a couple of months.

Blessed with two vibrant sons, the mom and dad are kept busy and wouldn’t have it any other way. But the story of young Alex is the great binding tale of this close-knit family.

Born on Oct. 17, 2007 (coincidently Charlie’s 42nd birthday), his second son wasn’t a day old before he was having his first of five open surgeries (four on his heart, one on his stomach.) Alex came into the world with a rare heart defect known as Ebstein’s anomaly. For Charlie, Sam and Tyson, everything changed that day.

Alex spent the first five months of his life in hospitals, none of them in the Tucson area the family has called its off-season home for the past 15 years.

As he has grown, there have been more surgeries and constant medical concerns, at every step reinforcing a parent’s love for their child. And, through it all, Alex’s smile and personality have been a constant source of joy and inspiration.

It won’t be immediately visible in his office with the Jays, but Montoyo will know of its calming and reassuring presence for days and nights when things might not go so well on the field. Just as he did in Tampa and previous baseball stops, affixed to the back of his locker, Montoyo will have a picture of Alex in the midst of his toughest days as a youngster, with medical apparatus protruding from various body parts.

“I use that as a positive,” Montoyo says. “It’s tough for people to see, but I always have a picture in my locker, a picture of Alex’s face with all the tubes and stuff, so whenever something goes wrong, I look at it and say it could be worse.

“What Alex went through, it helped make me a better manager. It helped make me calm. Alex, he’s the happiest guy, even after going through all that. He’s funny. He’s sarcastic. I think he gets that from me.”

When it comes to baseball, Alex Montoyo may be just an 11-year-old, but he is a huge and opinionated fan. Charlie knows the second-guessing will be coming fast and furious from his youngest son now that he’s about to be a full-time, big-league skipper.

“All the time, that’s what he does,” Montoyo says. “Like last year he’d tell me we were facing (Boston ace Chris Sale) the next and we have no chance tomorrow. He’ll watch all my games on his iPad. He knows all the players. And he isn’t afraid to tell me what he thinks.”

*****

During the off-season, Montoyo treasures what he has christened “Salsa Fridays,” his personal time to get lost in the music that has been a lifelong passion.

Neatly placed around his man-enclave are an impressive collection of salsa instruments: Bongos, congas, claves, maracas, timbales and more.

On the walls, decorated smartly by Samantha, are important memorabilia from his baseball journey: Pictures, framed jerseys and, among others, a plaque from his minor-league hall of fame induction. There are also vases filled with signed baseballs and other mementos from important touchstones of his lifetime in pro baseball.

But it is the music that is the centrepiece of this room. Montoyo’s library includes some 6,000 songs across a wide range of salsa styles from his current love of Cuban music to the Puerto Rican strains he was raised on.

One of Montoyo’s favourite big-league road stops is in New York, against the Yankees, because of the two-mile run from the stadium to a salsa music store in the Bronx.

“The guy there knows me when he sees me coming and he’s got all kinds of old salsa stuff,” says Montoyo, who rarely misses a day for his customary five-mile run. “Every time I go there, I buy more and more.”

On any given “Salsa Friday,” Montoyo will spend upward of four hours playing along to the music and videos beaming on to his massive big-screen television. If the mood strikes, he’ll mix in his libation of choice — a rum and Coke or two — and continue to play away.

There are plans to have some instruments in his Rogers Centre office as well.

“When I was (the manager) in Durham I did the same thing,” Montoyo says. “Sometimes I’ll stay after games and play, or before people get there. I just loved the music as a kid and, little by little, I kept learning how to play.”

*****

By his own description, Montoyo was chill during the rather rapid interview process with the Jays, one that essentially saw him hired less than four days after he learned he was seriously on the team’s radar.

The timeline for his hire was on fast-forward beginning with the Sunday-night call he got from Tampa general manager Erik Neander informing him the Jays wanted to talk to him.

Montoyo, who had just been through a similar experience with the Reds, was skeptical of his chances and perhaps mildly annoyed at another off-season intrusion.

The following morning, while waiting in a parking lot in Tucson for an appointment, it began. Before the day was done, he had spent some five hours on the phone with various Jays executives. It was clear the callers on the other end were becoming increasingly intrigued with a candidate who had vast managerial experience in the minors and wasn’t intimidated in the least.

“There were five guys asking questions and I couldn’t even look them in the eye,” Montoyo says. “But (Rays manager Kevin Cash) told me, ‘Dude, just be yourself’ and that’s what I did. I had nothing to lose. I was happy in Tampa and I liked my job. Of course you want to manage in the big leagues, but there was no pressure on me.”

The Jays liked enough of what they heard to invite him to Toronto. At 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Montoyo was driving to the airport for an early flight north, still not completely convinced he had a shot.

“Here I am driving to the airport and it’s still dark and I’m wondering what I’m doing, losing time with my kids,” Montoyo recalls with a chuckle. “I already did that with Cincinnati the week before.”

Once in Toronto, the pace and interest picked up noticeably when he faced another panel of Jays executives. This time, Montoyo could be more emphatic, and being in the same room let his personality be on display.

At night there was a dinner with general manager Ross Atkins and team president Mark Shapiro, one that, according to Montoyo, fortuitously dragged on because of slow service. All that meant was more time to sell himself.

“The more I talked to these guys, the more I was impressed with how passionate they are and the vision they have of what they want to do,” Montoyo said. “From what I hear, they had a tough beginning in Canada, but they have a vision and I love it. They aren’t selfish and are going to empower you to do your job.”

After more meetings on Wednesday, Montoyo returned home enthused and intrigued, yet fully expecting rejection.

While out for a walk the following morning, however, Atkins phoned with the job offer that was some two decades in the making.

Montoyo rushed home to see Samantha jumping up and down outside the front door, although the celebration had yet to begin.

“There was a huge rattlesnake right outside the door and she was going crazy,” Montoyo says, of what would be a slight delay to sharing the news.

Moments later she would have reason to jump for a much more uplifting reason. And with a few hours’ embargo on the hiring, Charlie and Samantha enjoyed a quiet morning at home with the news to themselves before the rest of the baseball world took notice.

*****

Because he has encountered so many baseball people at so many levels and left a memorable impression, Montoyo says the outpouring of support and heartfelt congratulations has been at times overwhelming.

“In some ways, the most important thing about this has been that it’s a job and an opportunity to provide for my family,” Montoyo says. “After what Alex has gone through, that has always been my thing. I want to do my best as a big-league manager and that’s what I will do.

“But then the reaction of everybody and the messages — the next morning it really hit me. The reaction of people has been the beautiful thing about it.”

Among the congratulatory messages Montoyo has saved on his phone is the one that came from the wife of late baseball great Don Zimmer. Montoyo worked with Zimmer in Tampa and the veteran was fond of the hard-working assistant.

“This is Don Zimmer’s wife calling to congratulate you,” Soot Zimmer says on the voicemail. “He would have been one of the first to call you. You followed one of his rules of roost — be a minor-league manager before you are a major-league manager, and you have certainly paid your dues.”

Montoyo vows that getting the chance of a baseball lifetime won’t change him.

“When I was in triple-A and having success and people were saying I should be in the big leagues, I just wanted to be the best I could be there,” Montoyo says. “If players down in triple-A see you are making phone calls about jobs and forgetting about them as a coach, I didn’t want to be that guy, and I wasn’t that guy.”

With more than 20 years in the Rays organization, Montoyo exhibited another quality character trait that he promises to pack with him in his bid to lead the renaissance of Canada’s team.

“I have always been loyal,” Montoyo says. “I will probably be the most loyal person the Blue Jays ever have had. That’s just who I am.”

*****

Most years, Montoyo treasures the off-season for the relative quiet and opportunity to catch up on the lives of those so dear to him. Like many a baseball family with school-aged kids, the toughest months, personally, are February through the end of the school year.

But this winter has been anything but an ordinary off-season routine for Montoyo. There have been four trips to Toronto, one to Las Vegas for baseball’s winter meetings, the triumphant return to Puerto Rico and, just last week, a quick sojourn to the Dominican Republic to check in at the Jays academy there.

“It’s been busy, really busy,” Montoyo says. “My life is being a dad in the off-season. That’s all I want to do and I just haven’t been able to do it as much. Phone calls, appointments, interviews — it’s been a lot. I’m not complaining, it’s been great and it’s been pretty cool at the same time.”

No, Montoyo isn’t complaining. But the sentiment is a glimpse into how much he treasures the time with his family.

A highlight was certainly one of those Toronto trips last month for the Jays Winter Fest, when the whole Montoyo crew was able to tag along. Included were trips to a Rock game (a highlight for Tyson), a Raptors game and a Maple Leafs game in which the family appeared on the video board during a TV timeout.

“I didn’t like the attention, but I guess I’ll have to get used to that,” Montoyo says with a laugh.

With the attention will come changes.

Managing in Durham, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., and serving as a bench and third-base coach in Tampa is one thing, but there will be a welcome-to-the-big leagues moment or two in Montoyo’s future.

“It can only change your life if you let it,” Samantha Montoyo says. “For us, it’s life-changing in that, yes, Charlie’s getting to do the job that he loves the most. But he’s still a father and we’re still a family.

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